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Saturday, 26 November 2016

Shows often hit their stride around season 3,
and I’d say the same applies to King ofthe Hill, though it was extraordinarily well-shaped from the very first
episodes. While a syndicated show, King
of the Hill actually does interesting things with its continuity – Luanne
in particular has a lot of interesting moments of development, with her
boyfriend dying in the cliffhanger from the previous season and a subsequent
period of soul-searching as her hair grows back. The season also introduces the
potential for Hank to get a step-brother even in his middle age, the birth
being part of the finale here.

Largely, though, where King of the Hill succeeds is in its complexity and dark undertones.
Hank’s father Cotton is pretty central to this, being an abusive and misogynist
embodiment of all the left hates about small-town right-wing America. He is
central to several season highlights, including a moment of lightness when he
takes the fall for Bobby in an embarrassing predicament and one good moment for
Hank where he finally stands up to him to defend his mother – and his mower.
The way others act around Cotton is often very funny, but for a comedy show
there’s a lot that’s chilling and unpleasant about what he embodies.

This is a show with a fantastic ensemble
cast, though. All Hank’s friends and family have their brilliant moments. The
main gang are consistently amusing, Luanne has the show’s best one-liners,
Peggy is by turns an unstoppable force of nature and incredibly naïve,
especially when it comes to matters of adultery (her realisation of it making
for one of the highlights of the show so far) and the way Bobby mystifies his
family is by turns funny and affectionate.

Not every episode is a hit. Bill losing it
and starting to impersonate his ex-wife is too far for what was previously a
subtle character quirk. The dolphin episode stretches credulity and Hank’s
character too far. The Rashomon episode (which I just noted was a family trope
in my thoughts on My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic season 6) was a little slow and exaggerated.

But these were certainly the minority, and
the vast majority of the episodes were very funny and often quite touching.
It’s the episodes that are centred on small problems dealing with the modern
world that shine, like Peggy playing in a softball team or the problems with
taking Bobby hunting. I also liked episodes centred on Kahn, who is a
remarkably subtle and multifaceted character for what would in many ways have
been a token outsider role. Probably the best element on the show’s more
complex side is Peggy’s deep-seated sadness about not being able to have
another child. It becomes less and less subtle but was at its best with her
reactions to Hank trying to get his dog to breed.

The show is certainly strong at this stage,
and a pleasure to watch. But will it continue that way? I’m not sure just now,
but I’m happy to keep watching.

Monday, 21 November 2016

During
a difficult time for Disney, around the same time Oliver and Companywas underwhelming audiences, yet before Pixar
revolutionised the animated medium, it wasn’t as though animation ground to a
halt. In fact, in some ways the pre-renaissance lull in Disney’s output was a
golden era for rival studios like Fox and Warner Bros. And in particular, Don
Bluth was the torch-bearer of high-quality animation. And one of the most
well-remembered of his movies is this one, The
Land Before Time.

It’s
The Secret of NiMH that really stamped
Bluth’s presence on the mainstream, and it’s probably my favourite of his
works. Steven Spielberg got involved for the remarkable success of An American Tail, and George Lucas got
on-board too for this, a consciously ‘Bambi-with-dinosaurs’
project that hit the right buttons for mainstream success – kids love
dinosaurs, animators can make spectacular volcanic landscapes and baby
dinosaurs can even fill any movie’s cuteness quota within minutes.

Rewatching
The Land Before Time, it’s in many
ways clumsier and less satisfying than the average Disney movie, but it does far
more things right than it does wrong. The biggest success is making a core
group of characters that are easily understood yet not completely flat,
likeable but flawed, and easy to care about despite, well, being terrible
thunder lizards. Littlefoot, Cera and the gang are still the benchmark for cute
dinosaurs, far more so than those in Dinosaur or even The Good Dinosaur, even
though those long eyelashes are just a little weird. The film succeeds when the
kids are separated from adult influences, whereupon we largely get a series of
character moments, which almost always hit the right notes. Cera being headstrong
and clashing with Littlefoot while adorable little Ducky gets upset doesn’t
break new ground but fleshes out its characters very neatly. Though Spike and
Petrie are lesser characters than the others, Spike a mute, peaceful glutton
and Petrie oddly adult in the group of small kids (a role probably meant for Bluth’s
favourite Dom DeLuise, if he hadn’t been off voicing Fagin in Oliver and Company), but they fill out
the group well. They also reinforce the central message of diversity – despite differences,
but acknowledging different strengths and weaknesses, the little dinosaurs
overcome the idea that ‘Three-horns don’t play with long-necks’ as they work
together, something which I’m surprised wasn’t pushed home more at the film’s
climax.

Indeed,
perhaps the weakest point of the movie is its ending. Yes, a goal is reached,
there are happy reunions and it comes after an exciting escape scene, but there’s
no real feeling of closure. The movie poises itself well to wrap up neatly, but
it just doesn’t satisfy with its abrupt ending. What do Littlefoot and Cera do
after this? Does Cera’s father change? What is said of Littlefoot’s mother? How
does Ducky continue her interactions with the rest?

It’s true that there are sequels to answer some of these questions – no less
than 13 of the things – but I’m pretty certain their quality will not match up
to the original’s, and little of the creative team’s original intentions will
be apparent there. But certainly, this was a good piece of animation, and paved
the way for All Dogs Go to Heaven and
later Anastasia. What should be
celebrated is the purity of vision of The
Land Before Time, the innocence that just about avoid mawkishness and the
lack of cynicism or self-conscious cleverness. It’s a simple message, delivered
simply and with striking and often inventive visuals, and while there were
parts that could certainly have been improved, particularly at the end, overall
this was a very enjoyable, undeniably enduring piece of work.

Sunday, 20 November 2016

The show that so quickly spawned a subculture
continues to prove itself just another show. And that’s fine. It’s not
redefining kids’ shows, it’s not deviating from established formulae and it’s
not broaching surprisingly tough topics for a colourful show for smaller kids
as many hoped at the start – but it is still enjoyable, easy viewing.

There are a few signs of the malaise that
affects so many shows towards the end of extended runs. One is that old cliché,
a new main character. The ‘Mane 6’ still have their adventures and lessons to
learn, but they’re starting to achieve their goals. Rainbow Dash is a
Wonderbolts reservist, thus essentially has fulfilled her life’s goal. Twilight
Sparkle is princess of friendship, wings and all. Rarity has her boutique, and
the others are pretty well-established and content with their lots in life now.
Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders have actually completed their mission and
transcended the ‘blank flank’ subplot, which is the biggest flag for the show
ending soon yet – though they continue to have little adventures helping others get cutie marks, which is just a
little forced.

But yes, a large part of the focus now turns
to Starlight Glimmer, once an antagonist whose episode was actually a very
interesting analogy for libertarianism, as she ran a village where
individuality and rising above the rest was forbidden, so no pony could feel
inadequate or ashamed – only for the heroes to prove, of course, that being
unique and special in your own distinct way is extremely important.

In this season, she is reformed, and Twilight
takes her on as a student. The little pony taken under the wing of a princess
now becomes a teacher in her own right, which is quite a nice progression but
another end-of-character-arc flag. As for Sunset Glimmer herself, she’s really
not a very interesting character. She’s given centre-stage in both the opening
two-parter and the season closer and manages to just about be likeable without
actually being interesting. Her angst about her past isn’t a good hook for her
character and she just needs more personality quirks in a group that not only
has had five seasons of development, but had most of their key moments in the
first handful of episodes. It’s a little bizarre when a random juvenile from a
previous season’s antagonist race is more interesting than your new major
character – though Thorax’s story’s conclusion was a little too cheesy.

Otherwise, the show plumbs the depths of
classic derivative cartoon plots. Rainbow Dash makes dumb mistakes in her new
position, or helps out other trainees who are in a pickle. Rarity’s new
boutique has problems with its opening day and difficult staff members.
Delicious home-cooking eventually wins over the hearts and minds of a society
that mindlessly follows critics. It’s nothing original, though sometimes it’s
very well-done – I rather enjoyed the Rashomon
episode.

In the end, I’m left feeling unmoved by this Pony season. It’s not exciting, new,
fresh or different any more. If they had gone the Fawlty Towers route and ended this show in its prime, it would
probably have endured, but this fading into mediocrity is painful – doubly so
when the writers are so keenly aware of it they make an episode bitching about
fans who only like the oldest instalments of a franchise. Really, they make a
character – Quibble Pants – who has this as his defining characteristic…and
then he sees the error of his ways not by being shown later instalments are
just as high-quality as the rest, but only by finding out what he thinks is
fiction is actually reality, with a tacked-on random speech later about how old
and new episode have different focuses, thus different pros and cons. It was
horribly transparent, insecure writing that really got on my nerves.

Yet still I will watch on, until the end. But
I’m not sure how much steam is left in this one.

Welcome to Adziu's small corner

Welcome to my little blog, here in this small corner.
Over the years I have seen a few hundred animated series and movies, and the purpose of this blog is to house my impressions. This is not intended to be a daily blog with impressions of each episode: I write my thoughts only after viewing something complete. Several have been imported from previous blogs dating back to 2005 - as well as drawing from journals from as early as 1999!
Now, please do sit, enjoy the fire, have a mug of something warm and put in a comment or two.